Tips From My Last Fantasy Writing Class

Hi folks!

I had been meaning to do this for ages, and if it's something that people enjoy, I'll share more. (I have a lot of these)

This is a list of fantasy writing considerations I shared with my students in my last class on writing fantasy in the Norwich Writing Centre.

It's not exhaustive by any means, and is certainly my own philosophy, but I have found it useful in writing and publishing Sister Wake, my debut epic fantasy.

Also, I hope this isn't breaking promotional rules. I'm not currently taking bookings for any more classes, which is one of the reasons I wanted to share this a bit further. I hope people find this useful, and feel free to agree/disagree/threaten to fight me in the comments, I always love hearing other writers' thoughts!

Remember that world-building is done in stages. It is a gargantuan task to build a plausible setting for your work, and it will evolve as your work involves. Plan your world before you begin but accept that you will be amending that plan as you go. Practically, this means you do not need to know everything before you start.

World-building is about connectivity – every detail in a world will act on every other detail. This is why the evolution process is important. You might come up with a fun detail in Draft I, but it is only in Draft III that you realise its effects on another part of your story. And that’s fine – remember, a reader will only be reading the draft you choose to share.

I'll add that you should not not stress about voice or language utility in your first draft. That draft is just you telling the story to yourself, and you can’t be judge and creator at the same time. There will be voice in your first draft (everybody has one) and you can use later drafts to refine it.

What I'm really driving at here is that for me, first drafts are about momentum. If you realise you need to change something in a previous chapter, leave yourself a note or comment on the document. Do not go back and change it, because three chapters later you may need to change it again.

I highlight this because by the time you finish your first draft, you will be a better writer. You will have more confidence. More knowledge. More practice. When you go back through your draft, look for the moments where you see good writing, and ask yourself how you achieved it. Read yourself like a favourite author, and ask what you do well, and what you need to work on.

Now, once that first draft is done, it's all about the elevation and the polish. An easy way to do this with world-building is with specificity – your world as opposed to someone else’s. It is perfectly fine in a first draft to start with the standard tropes; taverns with low rafters, frothy mugs of ale. But later, it is incredible the cachet you will build with a reader by being more specific in your names, tastes and textures. This displays confidence, which is attractive to a reader.

Another tactic is opportunity – not just what you invent, but what you do with those inventions. The mark of a great idea is one that gives you more ideas. If you come up with a cool concept, interrogate it to make sure you are getting the best out of it. Look for exciting knock-on effects or opportunities to show off the power or weapon in its most exciting form. Don't rush to the next idea before you've shaken out the first one's pockets.

You're also your own best resource. If you have a unique experience, profession, interest or area of expertise, utilising it is putting the best of yourself on the page. You’ll write with confidence. With knowledge. I draw on not just Irish mythology in Sister Wake, but the messy, granular nature of Irish history. The more specific your vision is, the more likely it has not been done before, and so you will stand out to an agent or publisher.

And speaking of vision, never forget to keep your world-building at eye-level with your character. Know what they know. While the world should not feel designed around the character, your character will be a product of it. Their hopes and desires and fears will be a response to the society that surrounds them. On the flipside of this, the world you’ve created is a machine you are pushing the character through, so they can achieve the character development you want. This is particularly true of magic, which to me is ‘theme made form’ – a way for you to externalise a central point or struggle of the world.

10. 

When it comes then to editing, you are trying to achieve clarity. Beauty is important. Poetry is important. But the goal is not beauty by itself. The goal is to make that beauty work for you. If you write the greatest description of a table ever put to page, but that table is not relevant to the story bar that one scene, you have wasted the reader’s time. Balance the literary with the pragmatic.

To that end, remember that you do not need to describe every moment that happens. This is particularly true of fantasy, which so often involves travel at a medieval pace. By all means write it in the first draft, but there is an elegant simplicity to the line ‘They marched until nightfall.’ You are not just a writer – you are a director. Show us what we need to see.

If this sounds like a lot – it is! But you have many drafts with which to achieve it. Give each draft its own purpose. Do not bite off more than you can chew. Your work will be better for it.